In
typical Melissa McCarthy fashion, she headlines The Boss in a slapstick,
outrageous comedy about an industry mogul who is sent to prison for insider
trading and has learn to adapt to being penniless. When she leaves prison she
is ready to remake herself as a beloved citizen. Some of the people she did not
get along with are not quick to forgive and forget what she did in the past.

McCarthy
is joined by Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage and Kathy Bates in lead roles.

In
the movie, McCarthy moves in with her former secretary (Bell) sleeping on her
sofa bed a new experience for the rich socialite. McCarthy becomes close with
Bell and her daughter. The daughter is enrolled in a group similar to the Girl
Scouts which sells cookies to neighborhoods.

McCarthy
goes with the daughter to a meeting and decides she can create a business model
to market to the same crowd, but with brownies. She plans to give the kids
commissions and matches it towards a future college education. She goes all in drawing
up plans for helping the brownies succeed and takes Bell on as her co-business
owner.

McCarthy
goes head to head with the cookie leader (Annie Mumolo) and they do not get
along.

McCarthy gets into a fight with Bell in the end and decides to sell her
business to another person, but has a change of heart and decides to not get
rid of the company.

There
is a childish fight scene and a stupid break-in scene. Over all, the movie is
funny, but profane and not recommended for younger children to see.

There
is a lot of extreme crude sexual content. I would not recommend this movie to
the senior generation or for kids in high school or younger. If you are looking
for a good date night laugh at a stupid movie this is the movie for you.

When Henry first wakes up, he’s got a list of things he’s
missing: An arm, a leg, his voice and his memories. He gets his limbs back – in
the form of some robotic appendages – and the woman helping him claims to be
his wife, but his voice is out of commission for the duration of the movie.
Before his life can settle into some semblance of normal, however, a man known
only as Akan arrives, declaring that Henry is the key to his plans of world
domination. The rest of the film is a fast-paced struggle as Henry attempts to
rescue his wife from her hostage situation.

The best thing that Hardcore Henry has to offer is
its unique perspective. Imagine something like a James Bond film, but with more
parkour, and with a GoPro strapped to the protagonists face. The movie was
filmed entirely from the viewpoint of various stunt doubles, which made the
fight-scenes all the more vivid and intense. This first-person point of view
was refreshingly original, and only served to enhance the movie’s action.

Unfortunately, there were some downsides to this
technique as well. For example, there are points were it looks too much like a
video game. In a couple scenes, I noticed the special effects suddenly melted
away, as though the producers had run out of money before they’d completed the
movie and had to scrap together some final scenes. Additionally, the camera’s
constant bobbing made the movie hard to follow at points, and my eyes felt like
they had whiplash upon leaving the theater.

The worst thing about Hardcore Henry is easily the
plot, which makes little to no sense. To add insult to injury, the storyline is
about as overused as they come: Remarkable hero is forced to save a loved one
from a nefarious villain with plans to take over the world. In fact, the
villain is so ridiculous I almost thought he was meant to serve as satire for
over-the-top antagonists. But no, Hardcore Henry seems to be taking
itself pretty serious on this one. He’s crazy, he’s albino, and he’s got
telekinesis. Why this man even needs a cyborg army is beyond me. Why he needs
Henry is even further beyond my capabilities to fathom.

Without a leading actor, the film was mostly carried by
Sharlto Copley, whose character served as Henry’s guide throughout the movie.
His erratic role in the movie actually complimented the absurdity around him
nicely, and I think the film would have really suffered without him. I was also
pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Tim Roth, who appeared very briefly
in the form of flashbacks.

Flaws aside, I actually kind of enjoyed Hardcore
Henry. It certainly won’t be winning any Golden Globes, but then again,
that’s not the type of movie I was expecting to see. Instead, I got nonstop
action set to a techno beat, and I’m perfectly okay with that. If nothing else,
it’s a mindless action flick to loosen up with.

Viewers be warned, this film is rated R for a reason;
profanity, sexual content, cringe-inducing violence, the works. It’s definitely
not for the squeamish or the faint of heart – the intro alone made me feel a
little woozy. But if you’re into brain-numbing violence without a plot, look no
further! Hardcore Henry is the film for you.

In the action packed sequel to Olympus
Has Fallen, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) and President Benjamin Asher (Aaron
Eckhart) are teamed up once again in a life or death struggle to keep the
President alive from extremists who want to exact their revenge on him.

In an elaborate plan that took two years
to organize, all of the world leaders gather in England for the funeral of the
British Prime Minister. It was claimed to be the safest city in the world at
that event, but it was not so.

The action was non-stop once wheels were
down in Britain. The beginning kept us guessing as to when things would start
blowing up and once they did…it didn’t stop.

Much of London was destroyed, but
certain landmarks were left standing, leading to the question, why? What makes
them so special?

Many of the characters returned from the
original movie. Melissa Leo as the Secretary of Defense, who in my opinion
should have retired after the first movie where she was beat to within an inch
of her life. Angela Bassett returns as Lynn Jacobs and Morgan Freeman returns
as the Vice President who takes command of the country and the rescue mission.

Unlike some action adventure movies,
this one was punctuated with zingy one-liners that kept the action from
becoming all encompassing. There were many laugh-out-loud moments.

Alon Abutbul played Aamir Barkawi, the
evil bad guy. The casting in the film was spot on.

I was impressed with some of the neat
ways that communication happened between London and the United States.

The missing element in this movie for me
was the romance. In the first one, Banning was trying to win back his wife. In
this movie, they were happy together and although we were kept wondering if
he’d make it home to his family, it was missing the spark of romance for the
women in the audience. It’s Gerard Butler…we expect some of that.

All in all it was a fun action movie if
you don’t pick at too many of the details, like how crazy it is to put all of the
world leaders in one place. Can you say “target”? Also, why did some of the
leaders not run when things started blowing up?

We saw the movie with friends who hadn’t
seen the first one and although it isn’t necessary, it helps with the
continuity and bits of dialogue that reference the first movie.

I would see this movie again, mostly for
the one liners and the dynamic duo of Butler and Eckhart.

This being an election year, I also had
the thought during the movie, how would Bernie Sanders get himself out of a jam
like this one?

Friday, April 1, 2016

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a new comic
book film that follows 2013s Man of Steel as the next installment in the
DC Extended Universe. Once again directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300)
this film hosts an all-star cast featuring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy
Adams, Jesse Eisenberg and Gal Gadot amongst others. It is worthy to note that
this is completely separate from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy with
Ben Affleck portraying a whole new incarnation of the Caped Crusader. Needless
to say, as a big fan of comic book films in general, I was very excited to see
the two most famous superheroes of all time face off in their first live action
film together.

The movie begins with a brief montage of Batman’s early
life while going on to show Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) witnessing the
destruction of Metropolis by Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael
Shannon) fighting at the end of Man of Steel. Because of these events,
Superman has become the most controversial figure on the planet. Some view him
as a god and a symbol of hope, while others see him being dangerous to all of
humanity. Batman is one of the people who views Superman as a threat and
decides to take it upon himself to defeat him once and for all. Meanwhile, Lex
Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has been working on creating Doomsday, a monster who
poses yet another threat to mankind. Now Batman and Superman must make peace
with each other and team up with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in order to save our
planet.

Overall, I had a blast watching this movie. Like all of
Zack Snyder’s work to date, the movie looked amazing and had mind boggling
visual effects; the guy proves yet again that he knows how to bring a comic
book to life. In addition, I loved watching Ben Affleck embody the role of an
older Batman/Bruce Wayne and thought he played each part perfectly. In my
opinion, his scenes were the best parts of the film. All of that being said, my
biggest complaint with this movie is that it had a bit too much going on and
really struggled to find its pacing. Putting that aside, Batman v Superman is
still worth seeing for the absurdly entertaining action, especially the epic
titular throwdown that we have all been waiting for.